Well been a bit quiet on the racing front this year. Due to an injury to my right knee (ligament) then the fact that my 675 seems keen to just not work in the slightest there just hasn't been the opportunity. This was to change at the 675.cc trackdays at Cadwell where (due to a knackered clutch, again) I was given the chance to ride a mate's Honda CB500 which eventually ended up with me buying it. A few mates race in the Thundersport GB 500 series and have been on at me to do it. Next thing I know my entry for Anglesey was off in the post. I decided to do the test day for a couple of reasons. I've not been to Anglesey for a good many years and I also wanted to have plenty seat time on the bike before diving in the deep end. The RAFMSA team had a garage and I managed to squeeze in there. The test day passes pretty uneventfully. The weather was lovely and by the afternoon I was comfortably lapping in 1:25's confident I could go faster come raceday. On the Sunday out for qualifying in damp conditions I discovered my front disk on the wet wheel was badly warped so back to the garage and waited whilst they removed the wheel, took the disk off, robbed the disk of my dry wheel, fitted it all back together and off out I went. I had an out lap and two flyers resulting in qualifying 39th from 45. This would put me in group B. I've since bought another front disk. I was 35th on the grid for my first race. Lights out and it was just mayhem. Bikes everywhere. There was overtaking. Lots of it. Five, six, seven bikes abreast fighting every corner. The slightest mistake costing you several places. After a few laps it does string out a bit but it's close racing for sure. I was loving it. The 10 laps passed in a flash. I ended up 27th. I had gone quicker. Lapping in the 21's. The fast guys are in the 15's. How? I've no idea. The second race was the B+C race. I was 9th on the grid for this one. Again off we went. A cluster of CB's into turn one. It's great. This was basically all the slower qualifiers so I was reasonably confident I could do well. After a few laps I managed to get 6th, then 5th, then up to 4th. I was quicker in a couple of places than the guy in 3rd but just couldn't get close enough to pass. Then the first real lesson in CB500 racing was dealt out to me by my good friend Nik Turner. As I was dithering behind the 3rd placed man, he caught and passed us both. With the last lap flag out I was determined to salvage something and managed to stick a pass on for 4th into the Corkscrew. Sat in Parc Ferme watching Nik step up on the podium did piss me off a bit. If I'd attacked 3rd proper as soon as I got there, I may have had enough of a gap to take 3rd. All ifs and buts though. My mistake and lesson learned. The good thing to take was I was going quicker and now in the 20's. Nik #75 lurking in the background. Then right up me chuff..... On the Monday I found I had just sneaked into the A group with my best time from the Sunday. So out with the fast lads twice, no chance of a podium today Both races were hectic. A blur of overtakes and overtaking. I was 24th in race one. Race two was particularly memorable. Eight of us fighting for what turned out to be 20th. Again I was 24th but had a race long battle with my mate Gary Cooper. I didn't know it was him at the time but we passed and passed again. Then he tried to pick me up in turn one so I just leant back on him. We exchanged a glance down into turn two but I had the inside line. He came back passed up into Rocket. Last lap and forcing him in tight into the Corkscrew he made a mistake on the way out giving me the chance to dive in underneath him into the last corner, praying he didn't come by before the line. He didn't. 24th again. We shook hands in Parc Ferme laughing like schoolkids. A great way to end the weekend. Being a racer, if you'd said I'd be in the 20's (5 secs off lap record) on Saturday, I'd have taken that. But we're greedy and I was disappointed not to break into the 19's. Still a great weekend though It was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. The stunning weather helped. The RAF team all work together to help each other. Thundersport GB have to be the best club in the UK. So well organised and the meeting run like clockwork. I'm looking forward to my next meeting with them. Which is at Donington. This weekend. Can't wait
Great write up TDB! Stop putting up your lap times though, you racers are really making us Trackday wannabes look positively glacial! - only kidding, well done and good luck for donnington too!
@Frequent Flyer ha ha ha laptimes are important at race meetings. Much less so on trackdays. They're for having fun
Phew - just seen it was not the international circuit (so I'm not quite glacial, probably more like a sloth speed-wise!!) tdb (no72) does feature in corner 1 of race 1 at the very least. I've been watching the Anglesey round of Thundersport instead of the Donnington BSB tonight - love the stories of everyone chipping in (and the close racing).
And that's pretty much it Now set up in the paddock Might miss a session or two tomorrow morning whilst the bike gets fettled Oh well
Great write up and info, I really like Anglesey and just took to it from the first time I rode it. I'm there again next month as Im going to drive from Harwich for 2 TD's on the 400 and then set off to Cardiff - just tossing up on sleeping in the van or local B&B... I think I know what's best for comfort space saving...
Might be getting a bit chilly now @0S2, but back in May a lot of guys were kipping in the garages (double NL header) - plug you kettle, hot plates, toastie maker and espresso machine and it's almost as good as the pub... Or there's always the valley hotel - good grub and beer there.
I've more or less made up my mind to stay B&B or Airbnb as there is a house a few miles from the track
